Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND
This invention relates in general to a solid
waste disposal and resource recovery process which produces
a useful ~uel or chemical synthesis gas, and more particularly9
to an improvement upon the process disclosed in U.S. Patent
No. 3,729,298, hereinafter referred to as the Anderson pro~
cess.
Historically, tne least expensive method for dis-
posing of solid waste has been open dumping. However, unpro-
cessed garbage dumps produce severe problems of ground waterpollution through leaching, loss of land value, fire hazards
and rodent inestation. A more acceptable method, sanitary
landfilling has reduced these problems by composting and `
covering the garbage with earth. Nevertheless, in large -
metropolitan areas, this practice has become increasingly
unattractive as acceptable sites become more scarce. Both
of these methods have been supplemented by incinerating the
waste be~ore landfilling. While conventional incineratlon
provides significant reductions in the volume of the refuse ~;~
and some alleviation of the pollution caused by leaching,
it lntroduces new environmental problems such as air pollu~
tion, and though volume reductlons of 80 to 90 percent are
possibLe, the residue or ash is not bioLogically inactive
and therefore landfilling is still required. Furthermore,
resource recovery from conventional incineration tends to be
minimal.
One solution to the above problems is disclosed and
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claimed in U.S. Patent No. 3,729,298. In summary, the -~
Anderson process disclosed in said patent comprises feeding
refuse into the top, and oxygen into the base of a vertical
shaft furnace. The furnace (or converter) can be described
in terms of having three functional zones; a drying zone at
the top, a thermal decomposition or pyrolysis zone in the
middle, and a combustion and melting zone (or hearth) at the
base. These zones are not clearly distinct; that is, there
is no sharp line separating them. As the refuse descends in
the furnace, it is first dried by the hot gas which rise through
the furnace and ~hen pyrolysed. Pyrolysis is a process whereby
organic matter in the refuse is decomposed and thermally
cracked in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere with the generation
of a C0, H2 and a char like material. As the refuse moves
down through the pyrolysis zone, it is converted ~o volatile
materials which rise and becomes char which descends into
the combustion zone. There it is combusted with oxygen,
causing the generation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide
which produce the heat required to melt the inorganic solids
in the refuse3 such as glass and metal. The molten slag is
continuously tapped from the converter, and quenched in a
water bath. A gas containing at least 50% (on a dry basis)
of a C0 and H2 mixture is discharged from the top of the
furnace. Following cleanup, the gas is ready for use as a
medium BTU fuel gas or for chemical synthesis.
With natural resources becoming increasingly scarce 9
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there has been an increasing demand to recover them from
waste material. It is well known that shredding of refuse
prior to further processing is necessary if ferrous metals
as well as other material such as tin, aluminum or glass
is to be recovered from the refuse by any practical and
economical technique. Such recovery processes make use of
magnetic fields, electric fields or air classification to
separate various components of the shredded refuse. The
degree of shredding will vary considerably depending on the ~
nature of the separation pr~cess used, as well as the resource -
to be recovered from the refuse. Although ferrcus metal is
among the easiest to recover from shredded refuse by magnetic
separation, i~ cannot easily or economically be extracted and
purified fro~ the slag-metal residue produced by the ~nderson
process.
It has been found that when shredded refuse is fed
into a shaft furnace and processed in accordance with the
Anderson process, it tends to compact so tightly as to restrict
the flow of gases through the shaft required for proper
20 functioning of the process. These problems become particular- -
ly acute if the furnace is run over a long period of time.
One of the problems caused by packing of shredded refuse is
that the gas rising from the hearth does not flow uni~ormly
through the entire cross-section of the refuse bed and tends
instead to be restricted to a few passages. These passages
become enlarged as pyrolysis of the refuse and oxidation of ;~
the resultant char occur, eventually leading to the formation
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of one large channel through which most of the gases then
flow. Such channeling reduces the efficiency of the process
considerably, since the hot gases from the hearth passing up
through the channel have insufficient time and surface contact
area to transfer the heat necessary for the gassificationj
pyrolysis and drying processes to take place. Consequently,
the gases leave the top of the furnace at a high temperature,
resulting in lower thermal efficiency, an increase in oxygen
consumption and a decrease in the BTU value of the product gas.
OBJECTS
It is an object of this invention to adapt the
process described in U.S. Patent No. 3g729,289 so as to
render it capable of operating efficiently when utilizing
shredded refuse as the feed material.
It is another object of this invention to provide -
a process for disposing of shredded refuse, Erom which ~he
bulk of ferrous metal has been separated, while simultaneously
producing a useful fuel or synthesis gas therefrom.
It is still a~other object of this invention to
provide a process for disposing of solid waste and recovery
of natural resources by an oxygen-pyrolysis process wherein
~errous metal is recovered from the shredded waste which is
thereafter converted to a useful gas and an inert solid
residue.
SUMMARY
These and other objects which will be apparent
to those skilled in the art are achieved by the present
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invention, which comprises:
In a process for disposing of refuse while simul- -
taneously producing a useful gaseous product and an inert
solid residue, comprising the steps of (a) feeding refuse
into the top portion of a vertical shaft furnace, (b) feeding
an oxygen containing gas into the base o~ said furnace, (c)
pyrolysing the organic portion of the refuse, (d) fluidizing
the inorganic portion of the refuse, (e) discharging the
gaseous products from the top of said furnace, and (f) tapping ;
the fluidized inorganic material from the base of said
furnace, the improvement comprising:
feeding the refuse into the furnace in the form of
pellets of compacted refuse, said pellets being characterized
by having:
(1) a density greater than that given by
the equation:
D = 32 7 000
(100-0.8A)
where:
D = the density of pellet (kgs./m.3),
A = percent inorganics in the refuse pellet, and
(2) a surface to volume ratio greater than
that given by the equation:
~G 0.625
~ = 5-6~(H)
where:
R = the ratio o~ the surface area to the volume of ~he
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pellet (ft.2/ft.3)
H = the height o~ the refuse bed in the furnace (ft.)
G = the refuse feed rate (tons/day/ft.2 of furnace
cross-sectional area).
Preferably, the process is carried out by utilizing
a gas containing at least 40% oxygen (by volume) as the
oxygen containing feed gas. It is also preferred that the
weight ratio of oxygen to refuse feed be maintained in the
range of from 0.15:1 to 0.28:1. However, the advantages
resulting from the present invention will also benefit the
process when operated outside the preferred conditions and
ranges specified above.
THE DRAWINGS
Figures la and lb are conceptual flow diagrams
illustrating the r~efuse disposal and resource recovery pro-
cess of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is to be understood that the term "refuse" as
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used herein is intended to include any solid was~e; that is,
any type of municipal, industrial, commercial or agricultural
~ waste material. Such material is normally composed of varying
quahtities of organic and inorganic matter such as paper,
plastics, rubber, wood, glass, food waste, leaves, water,
tin cans and other scrap metal products. It is also possible
to mix sewage sludge with the refuse and thereby dispose of
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this material as well.
As used herein, the term "shredded" as applied to
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the refuse is intended to include a wide range of particle
size, as well as any type of size reduction technique, since
both these factors are primarily dependent upon the nature
of the pretreatment to which the refuse may be subjected for
resource recovery purposes prior to pyrolysis. Thus, the
shredding may consist of several stages of comminution to a
very fine particle size, or it may involve only minimal
break-up of gross structures or the breaking open of plastic
bags to expose their contents - as with a flail mill. In
those instances where the raw solid waste is by nature sized
sufficiently small that it can be pelletized directlyj mere
segregation of oversized objects may suffice; the main criteria
being the ability of the refuse to be compacted into strong
pellets.
The overall operation of the refuse disposal and ;
resource recovery process of the present invention can more
easily be understood by reference to the drawings~ Refuse
is normally delivered to the disposal facility in refuse
collecti~n or transfer trucks 1 which dump the refuse into
a pit 2. Crane 3 mixes the refuse in the pit in order to
help insure a relatively uniform supply of material. Such
a pit should have a capacity equal to several days of continu-
ous operation in order to provide a relatively uniform ~eed
of material as well as to prevent having to shut down operations
over weekends when refuse from municipalities is not ordinarily
collected. Crane 3 loads the re~use on to the conveyer 4
which feeds the refuse in its as-received condition to a
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shr~dder 5 where the refuse is reduced in size to approximate-
ly 4-6 inches across the greatest dimension of the particle
discharged from shredder 5. The shredded refuse is then con-
veyed by conveyer 6 to a conventional magnetic belt separator
7 which removes about 95% of-the ferrous material from the
refuse. The ferrous material is dropped onto conveyer 8
which transports it to a transfer trailer (not shown) for
hauling to a metal recovery plant. The remainder of the
shredded refuse, which is substantially free of magnetic
metal, drops on to conveyer 9 which transports the refuse R
to hopper 10 which feeds the refuse to a high pressure
pelletizer 11 located near the top of fur~ace 12. Pelletizer
11 compacts the refuse to the desired size and density.
The pelletizer 11 also feeds the shredded refuse
pellets directly into the top section of shaft furnace 12.
The densely compacted refuse pellets provide a seal preventing
the ga~es from leaking out of the furnace through the refuse
feed port. The product gases G are discharged from the top ~-~
of furnace 12 through discharge duct 13. These gases con-
taining at least 50% by volume of CO plus H2 (on a dry basis)
may be used either as a fuel gas or as a synthesis gas for
chemical processing, for example, to be converted to ammonia.
The base of furnace 12 contains the hearth section, which in-
c~udes means for injecting oxygen through one or more tuyeres
14, and a slag tap for discharging the fluidized metal and slag,
which flows through a slag duct 15 into a water illed quench
tank 16. The water in the quench tank,which causes the slag
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to solidify and break up into a finely divided inert solid
inorganic residue,also provides a water seal to prevent the
gases from leaking out of furnace 12 which is opera~ed under
a slight positive pressure. A drag conveyer 17 may be used
to remove the solidified residue S from quench tank 16 and to
drop it into a collection vessel such as a dump truck 18.
The strength of the pellets, as best defined by
their density, and the surface to volume ratio of the pellets
are of critical importance to proper operation of the furnace.
The pellets must be sufficiently strong to remain intact
within the furnace as they move down through the drying and
pyrolysis zones. This is necessary in order that they pro-
vide a porous structure within the furnace to enable ~he
gases to rise through the entire cross-section o~ the bed in
such manner as to provide a good gas~solids contact area
necessary for heat transfer. It has been unexpectedly found
that drying increases the strength of the pellets. Hence,
the pellets increase in strength as they progress down the
shaft furnace. It is the presence of such coherent pellets
throughout the height of the bed that prevents the bed from
beoming a solid gas impervious mass, while at the same time
enabling the pellets to move relative to each other as the
refuse ls consumed by the pyrolysis and combustion processes
which take place within the furnace. By movement of the
pellets relative to each other, large channels tend to be
closed as pellets drop into the channel. In addition, the
bed will con~inuously rearrange itself as refuse is consumed,
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thereby preventing sudden large instabilities from occurring
which would lead to collapse of the bedO
A refuse pellet too low in density will lack suffi-
cient structural strength and will tend to break up as it is
fed into the furnace. The result causes the same type of
phenomena to occur as occurs when unpelletized shredded refuse
is fed into the furnace.
It has been found that in order to provide a refuse
pellet having sufficient structural strength to remain coherent
in the above process it must have a density greater than that
given by the equation: -
D = 32,000
(100-0.8A)
where:
D = the density of the pellet (kgs./m.3)
A = percent inorganics in the refuse pellet (%).
When the refuse pellets are sufficiently dense to
have the necessary structural strength, the drying and ~ -
pyrolysis reactions become limited by the rate of heat transfer
and diffusion within the pellet. For optimum performance,
the surface to volume ratio of the pellets should be greater
than that given by the equation:
~ 0.625
R = 5-64 ~
where: ~ -
R = the ratio of the surface area to the volume of the
1~ t ( 2/m 3)
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H = the height of the refuse bed in the furnace (m.)
G = the refuse feed rate (metric tons/day/m.2 of furnace
cross-sectional area).
If a pellet has a surface to volume ratio which is
lower than that calculated from the above equation, the
energy of the rising gases in the shaft furnace will be
insufficiently utilized, causing the temperature of the
product gas to rise, and as previously noted, such high off
gas temperatures cause inefficient operation in terms of
10 higher oxygen consumption and the production of a gas having -
a lower heating value.
The high density pellets required for the present ;;
invention are to be distinguished from compacted refuse made
by ordinary household or industrial refuse compacters. Those
normally compact material to only about 1/3 of its original
volume, using ram pressures in the neighborhood of 2.1 kg/cm2.
Such compaction is entirely inadequate for providing pellets
of the size and density required in the present process.
Apparatus suitable for producing pellets of the type required
in the present invention is described in U.S. Patent NoO
4,133,259 issued January 9, 1979
While the present invention will function satis-
factorily with pellets made from any form o~ refuse as long
as it is capable of being pelletized to the density and
surface to volume ratio specified~ the pellets are preferably
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made from shredded refuse. It is also preferred that most
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of the ferrous metal be removed from the shredded refuse
prior to being compacted into pellets. The preferred range
o pellet density is 25 to 50 lbs./cu.ft.3.
EXAMPLE
The following example will serve to illustrate the
process of the present invention. Cylindrical pellets of
municipal refuse having a density of 30-40 lbs./ft.3, a
diameter of 13 inches, and lengths varying from 5-8 inches,
produced by compacting pressures of 400-1000 psi, were fed
at an average rate of about 100 tons/day into a vertical,
refractory-line~ metal shaft furnace having an inside diameter
of 10 ft. and an overall bed height of about 20 ft. The sur- ;
face to volume ratio of the pellets varied from 6.7 to 8.5
ft.2/ft.3. The compacting pressure and pellet length varied
due to variations in the amoun~ of moisture in the refuse and
due to variations in the composition of the refuse. Steady
state conditions were established after the furnace had been
operating for about 24 hours. Operation of the furnace was
smooth and e~ficient as indicated by a steady product gas rate,
steady pressure drop across the bed, and by the low tempera-
ture, (300-~600F) of the off gas leaving the furnace. Oxygen
feed during the run was maintained within the range of 0.17
to 0.22 tons oxygen/ton refuse.
